Professor Honghong Tinn at ECE Spring 2024 Colloquium

TSMC and the new geopolitics of the 21st century

Taiwan rose to global prominence in high tech manufacturing since the 1990s. From computer maker to the world’s leading chip manufacturer, Taiwan boasts the likes of Acer, Foxconn, Asus, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). In this talk, I will present a history of the fabrication of semiconductor chips in Taiwan.

First, I will review Morris C. M. Chang’s founding of TSMC, and the multiple origins of the “dedicated foundry model” in the 1980s. The model was independently created by Morris Chang, and Robert H. C. Tsao at United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). I argue that the model originated from Chang’s and Tsao’s similar understandings of Taiwan’s successful computer manufacturing industry. Second, I will discuss how various parties in the United States and Taiwan deemed TSMC’s high-end chips valuable resources in 2022 to cultivate international support to assist Taiwan in deterring a potential Chinese incursion. This talk draws on chapter 10 of my forthcoming book Island Tinkerers: Emulation, Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s Computing Industry (MIT Press).

Brief bio of Prof. Tinn

Honghong Tinn is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Science & Technology Studies from Cornell University. Her research interests are in the areas of the history of electronic digital computing, Cold War, econometrics, and science, technology, and medicine in East Asia. Her forthcoming book, Island Tinkerers: Emulation, Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s Computing Industry (MIT Press), argues that Taiwan’s local technologists—a group of technology-savvy professionals, technocrats, technology users, and engineers-turned-entrepreneurs—led the transformation of Taiwan from a former Japanese colony and defeated Chinese Nationalist’s last fortress to a country that calls itself the Silicon Island. She is an elected member of the Nominating Committee (2023-2025) and was an elected member of the Executive Council (2017-2019) of the Society for the History of Technology, an advisory editor for Engineering Studies, and a member of the editorial board of East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal.

Professor Honghong Tinn at ECE Spring 2024 Colloquium

TSMC and the new geopolitics of the 21st century

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